larknz: It looks like the poor people who can't afford the latest phone miss out. Only the rich will be saved.

Every new carrier approved model sold from now on should have it enabled, across the entire price range. And anyone who doesn't get it is no worse off than before. Except maybe other people they know who do get it let them know, and the message still gets out faster than when the system wasn't in place at all...

Presidential, ImminentThreat (such as a storm or tornado) and Amber alerts. These alertsare automatically received by the latest WEA- (Wireless EmergencyAlerts) compatible handsets. However, subscribers can opt out of allbut Presidential alerts. Subscribers with WEA-compatible handsets willreceive alert messages when roaming to another provider in the US andabroad that offers CMAS or EU-A

Received on my iPhone X. Phone is on silent so it just vibrated, I could click on the message then close it, but it didn’t clear from my notifications, I had to swipe left to bring up the view and clear buttons to clear it. It probably would have been able to be cleared by using the clear all too

PaulBags: It does use the default app (disabling it's permissions was how I disabled alerts - and it's not clear at all that if you do so that will happen), and if you click the message without reading it to shut the sound up you get taken to the default app - which if you don't use it then doesn't actually show the message, instead it asks you to make it the default and asks for permissions. So, not at all helpful in an emergency.